Obviously opinions on this are going to vary, but I thought I'd open this up to discussion here. Say I'm a lifelong runner in my late 30s who wants to stay fit and healthy but who no longer trains to be competitive or anything. What is the optimal number of mpw? Say I lift one or two days per week and occasionally do yoga or something. How many miles should I be running most days on the days I do run? Any older guys here with advice?
About 500 meters, depending on the size of your house and the location of your tv with respect to your kitchen. This should roughly be the distance per week you cover if you make several trips to the kitchen for some doritos while watching Fox News and Newsmax everyday for hours on end.
Obviously opinions on this are going to vary, but I thought I'd open this up to discussion here. Say I'm a lifelong runner in my late 30s who wants to stay fit and healthy but who no longer trains to be competitive or anything. What is the optimal number of mpw? Say I lift one or two days per week and occasionally do yoga or something. How many miles should I be running most days on the days I do run? Any older guys here with advice?
Just to stay in good shape and healthy only requires 3-4 easy runs per week 30-60 min duration.
Obviously opinions on this are going to vary, but I thought I'd open this up to discussion here. Say I'm a lifelong runner in my late 30s who wants to stay fit and healthy but who no longer trains to be competitive or anything. What is the optimal number of mpw? Say I lift one or two days per week and occasionally do yoga or something. How many miles should I be running most days on the days I do run? Any older guys here with advice?
Define older....? Do you lift 1 or 2 days? Is the Yoga to show off your feminine side? I would do 3-4 times a week, 5 miles at 8 minute mile pace. That should give your neighbour plenty of time to head over and give your missus a good seeing to.
There isn't a magic number in terms of just running, but 4, 7, and 10 are levels in terms of hours of exercise per week. Cross training and strength training can figure into that total. At 4 hours per week you won't be too fit, but it's enough to slow down the rate of decline. You'll gain weight at this level, but not as fast as if you are sedentary. You can really be said to be 'training' at 7 hours per week. If you're competitive you won't be getting the most out of yourself with less than 10 hours, but that's not what you're interested in.
Obviously opinions on this are going to vary, but I thought I'd open this up to discussion here. Say I'm a lifelong runner in my late 30s who wants to stay fit and healthy but who no longer trains to be competitive or anything. What is the optimal number of mpw? Say I lift one or two days per week and occasionally do yoga or something. How many miles should I be running most days on the days I do run? Any older guys here with advice?
"Stay fit and healthy" is a great goal, but in my opinion, you need to be more specific if your long term goal is to reach, say 80, as fit, healthy, and youthful as possible.
That said, your balance of activities seems to be wrong. First, you aren't doing enough lifting. You should be doing weight lifting 3-5x/week. A couple of those days should be at the gym, but the other days can be simple body weight exercises, dumbbells, or resistance bands at home. It doesn't take long to do 3 sets of pushups, air squats, curls, etc. Figure out how to motivate yourself to do this. It will pay great lifetime dividends.
Now, about running.
Running should be for fun. That way, you can keep doing it into your 70s, like me. You need at least three days per week or else it becomes too easy to skip a day and then a week, a month, etc. Runs should be about 45 minutes, give or take a bit. You don't need to run longer than a hour, but if you have a fun trail nearby that takes longer, by all means do it occasionally.
How much do you need to run? You need to run enough to keep yourself sane and to keep from gaining weight. I'm not joking about the sanity part. You might find your life a little "flat" without the endorphins from running. I did when I was forced to stop for long periods.
Runners are obsessed with mileage. Dr Ken Cooper found that 12-30mpw was the "healthy" range for avoiding illness, but he also found that less than 12mpw was a LOT worse than greater than 30mpw. Don't worry about mileage, just run every other day. If you're bored and don't want to go to the gym on your off day, go for an easy run in the park.
From age 30 to my late 50s I worked an average of 55hrs/week, and we had two kids go from infants to college age. After family and career responsibilities I managed to carve out about 45 mins/day, 5 days a week for running. That was enough for me to run low to mid-17 5ks for most of that time.
Not all of us are in the states. I know it’s hard for Americans to remember there are other counties in the world, but do keep up!
That's even worse. You're ranting about American right wingers while you're either not even an American citizen or you're an American on some sort of trip. Seek help brother.
Obviously opinions on this are going to vary, but I thought I'd open this up to discussion here. Say I'm a lifelong runner in my late 30s who wants to stay fit and healthy but who no longer trains to be competitive or anything. What is the optimal number of mpw? Say I lift one or two days per week and occasionally do yoga or something. How many miles should I be running most days on the days I do run? Any older guys here with advice?
Science, not pop “science”, says ~3 hours of cardio is where health benefits top off.